Seven Dutch autumn fashion trends to wear in the Netherlands

As the late but glorious summer fades away, like the last embers of a once passionate summer romance, let’s look back at the fashion trends that made the summer months in the Netherlands so special.

Summer 2016 was the season of the clone

In Amsterdam during the summer of 2016 it was impossible to leave the house without seeing one of the following outfits:

• Horizontal stripes
• Spray on hot pants
• Jeans worn by both men and women with more holes than the story used to justify Zwarte Piet (sorry, had to go there :D)
• White sneakers
• Men’s shirts worn as ‘dresses’

Yes dear reader, during the summer of 2016, Amsterdam was awash with numerous young people dressed in such a clone like fashion that many an expat visited an optician and said,

“please help me, I’m seeing double.”

Dutch Autumn fashion trends

As the autumn is now upon us, I’ve invited Holland’s top fashion blogger, Monique de Saai, to provide a preview of the outfits we can expect to see this autumn. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be hoping for a little more individuality, but like a group of Dutch sorority girls having an intense debate about which men in the fraternity are worth dating, I won’t hold my breath.

What to wear this autumn in the Netherlands

Hallooo, jaaaaa, met Monique. It’s sooo nice to be here, how leuk is that? The Shallow Man has asked me to provide a preview of the fashion trends this autumn, and at first I was like, “The Shallow Man? That’s the lul who said that whenever he sees a group of Dutch women walking down the street, the song ‘walk like a man,’ pops into his head.” Which is niet leuk hoor! However, as writing for his blog gives me an opportunity to set the record straight about Dutch fashion I decided to go ahead and do this guest blog post.

1. The Spekkoek look

The first big trend of this autumn, well every autumn actually, will be to wear more layers than a spekkoek.

 

To be trendy in the Netherlands this autumn wear the following layers:

1. A t-shirt
2. A blouse covering the t-shirt, but leave the blouse slightly open and don’t whatever you do tuck the back of the blouse into your jeans
3. Go to the house of one of your grandparents and take one of their heavy thick cardigans, the older and more moth eaten the better
4. Wear a long thick scarf that will helpfully fly into the faces of anyone cycling behind you
5. A leather jacket, (always black)
6. A thin, shapeless, creased coat that looks as if you’ve been sleeping in it

 

 

2. Red is the new black

Freshly returned from the fashion capital of europe…Zwolle, I’m excited to tell you that the buzz in the Dutch fashion industry right now, is all about the return of the color red. Once extremely popular in the Netherlands, it’s fabulous to see it making a comeback. This season will see Dutch fashionistas making bold and brash statements in red. Expats, ignore the Shallow Man’s advice and don’t bring sunglasses to work if any of your colleagues start wearing red trousers. Instead, complement them on having their finger on the pulse of modern fashion.

 

 

 

 

3. The Han Solo look

We Dutch people love ‘Star Wars.’ It’s the story of a benevolent and tolerant empire brought to its knees by ungrateful rebels. Substitute Luke Skywalker with Quinsy Gario and Princess Leia with Sylvana Simons and it’s what would happen here if we let the newcomers have too much of a say. In spite of him being a rebel, we Dutch women love the fashion sense of Han Solo. Especially knee-high laarzen made from synthetic leather with flat heels. So comfortable and sexy at the same time. Mooi!

 

4. The Brown Suede Ankle Boot

Some might say that it never went away, but making a return to the fashion scene will be the classic suede Dutch ankle boot. For people that dare to say that Dutch women don’t know how to wear heels, these elegant and stylish boots are proof that Dutch women don’t only wear so called ‘dangerously flat shoes.’

 

5. The return of the ugly shoe

I’m so excited to report that at a recent London fashion show, that top designer Christopher Kane, sent models down the catwalks wearing, wait for it…, crocs! Jawel crocs zijn terug!!! Perfect for both Dutch men and women, these so-called ugly, tasteless, and offensive shoes, so bad that refugees would sooner jump back on a boat and return to a war zone rather than wear them, will be all the rage this autumn. You have been warned! I can’t wait to get a pair of bright red crocs and wear them about town with my identically dressed meisjes. Lekker stylish hoor!

 

6. The Duvet dress

“We, Dutch women, love dressing to be comfortable.” The fashion industry has taken note, and just for the Dutch market, they’ve invented the duvet dress. It combines the two things that we value above all things, comfort, and shapelessness. When wearing this, there’s no way that people walking behind us will be able to tell if we’re male or female, which is how we like it. Sadly, the designer version cost hundreds of euros, so expect to see lots of women walking the streets wearing the duvets that they’ve slept in, lekker goedkoop!

 

 

7. Green shoes

Inspired by the environmental movement, another popular trend this autumn will be men’s shoes in bright green. Expect to see bankers and makelaars throw away their brown shoes and replace them with green ones instead.

 

This autumn in the Netherlands will be even more stylish than usual and will show why we have the reputation as the best-dressed people in Europe. (Amongst ourselves). So remember, be bold, be loud and always proud and make sure that you follow the Dutch autumn fashion trends.  Gezellig! Don’t forget to check out my site, my little black fashion blog and me for more essential Dutch fashion tips. Thank you, Shallow Man.

No stylish people wearing red trousers were hurt during the writing of this post.

Till next time, what do you call a British man that knows where his wife is at night? A widower.